Baking Pizza in a Homemade Brick Oven

Baking Pizza in a Homemade Brick Oven Allie Schwartz: Cook on Sunday, eat until Thursday. I’m Allie and you’re watching Economy Bites. So we’re here today with Scott Wiener from New York City, Scott is a tutor here in New York City. We’re going to head in to this none descript big box hardware store to buy some tiles to make our own pizza oven. Scott Wiener: We’re going to be using some tiles that we can purchase at the hardware store to convert our standard Brooklyn rental apartment junky oven into a really great heat capturing New York style brick oven. You just need unglazed floory tiles from the hardware store. Allie Schwartz: And we got 14 of them, so it’s seven box. Scott Wiener: And 14 of them is that’s really the above and beyond method of doing this. Some people used pizza stones in there oven and that’s great. It costs about $50.00. With this you can Allie Schwartz: This is the economy-wise version. What is the benefit of making a pizza and oven that we rake up with these little 45 cents tiles that we buy at a nameless big box hardware store? Scott Wiener: Your oven goes up to 500 but with this tiles, we’ll be able to surpass that 500. The outside is going to be crispier and the inside should be softer and lighter. Allie Schwartz: No cracks. Scott Wiener: No cracks in there, no cracks and if you’re confused on which ones to buy? Allie Schwartz: Say no to crack. Scott Wiener: Yeah, just a little bit. Well, just ask your representative in your local big box hardware store, asked at least three of them before you take these up. First of all, we got to wash them off. Allie Schwartz: These are red pizzeria style and add this to your tile and then I’m going to put the clean ones over here. Scott Wiener: We’re going to actually built a whole enclosure. It’s going to be a four, it’s a fourth for delicious pizza. It’s going to protect our taste buds. Allie Schwartz: Tell us why we picked you to be here today on the show to teach us about on side pizza enthusiasm and is that right. Scott Wiener: I run a pizza tourist drive in New York City where I take people to culturally significant pizzerias. We talk about what makes them different, what makes them special. There are so many people want to know where’s the best pizza, where’s the best pizza. Allie Schwartz: I’ve taken the tour. It’s worth your time if you come to New York and you want to learn about our number one most delicious export pizza? Scott Wiener: I love how you're constructing your oven. You a perfect little crevice and that’s extremely difficult to open it. This is really great. This is the back. Allie Schwartz: What can I say? They’re not actually dirty. The video cameras Scott Wiener: Oh I see that’s the cool little setting you have. We could separate here and we spend less than $2.00 and that would be our pizza stone. Allie Schwartz: You just flip those upside down? Scott Wiener: We’re making the top larger than the bottom. So this is the most exciting part. You are making sides as the heat will rise up, bounce to all pieces, bounce up the top, boom chalaplap, boom! I’m going to try to just move this down one level. I’m loving it now. Yes, this is it. Allie Schwartz: So now we’re going to crank up the heat on the oven? Scott Wiener: Bing! I didn’t hear that sound? Allie Schwartz: That was the oven. That’s the 500 degrees sound. No, what are you doing? Are you crazy? Nothing is that hot. Scott Wiener: I've always been nervous about pizza stone because I know if I break it and it's $50.00 Allie Schwartz: I am prone to breaking things. So, if you are also prone to breaking things, you should be probably go with the $7.00 version. We have some readymade dough that Scott made for us. If you want to know learn how to make your own dough, we’ll have Scott’s recipe or you can follow our recipe which I’ll linked to in whatever which is also in the link. Lots and lots of link. Scott Wiener: Lots of links. So this is some fresh buds, the basil. So with basil, this basil, I was growing in my garden. We’re not going to run this under stream of water otherwise that water will bruise the leaves. Lay them out on some paper towel and we’re going to very lightly blot off the leaves. Allie Schwartz: I don’t really like these pizzeria napkins and I’m going to tell you why. What am I suppose to absorb with this? Scott Wiener: Yeah, they are terrible. This is fresh Mozzarella, don’t tell anybody because I snagged it from the pizzeria. It’s floating in its own brine. The stuff you don’t need to refrigerate. Well cut one for the pizza and then you we’ll eat one. Cut one for the pizza and I will eat one. Allie Schwartz: That is fine with me. Scott Wiener: The reason we’re cutting is I want the liquid to drain from this cheese and I got tomato action. Sameat the town in Italy, tomato was named for that town. We bought them in crushed which I love. Allie Schwartz: I'm never been good with the can opener. Scott Wiener: You know it’s not a skill they teach you in school. You learn it on the streets. Allie Schwartz: Okay we’re going to havehere you taste it. Scott Wiener: This is definitely sweet. It doesn’t need anything to sweeten it up. Allie Schwartz: Lastly but more importantly most importantly Scott Wiener: You now what it’s a trinity. Allie Schwartz: The dough. Scott Wiener: So this dough is just flour, salt water and yeast. Allie Schwartz: It’s been about 45 minutes. Scott Wiener: We need to flour our board and they're going to like super, super delicate with the handling of the dough. Allie Schwartz: It’s watery. Scott Wiener: Yeah, we’re distributing all the carbon dioxide that has been expelled by the yeast during the fermentation process. Pushing it from the center, going out, once it's sort of expanded as much as we think we can get it this way, yeah look at all these bubbles happening. Allie Schwartz: Tons of bubbles. Scott Wiener: Do you like bubbles in your pizza? Allie Schwartz: Totally. Scott Wiener: But you see how thin it's getting, oh dangerous. Allie Schwartz: See how Scott did that was his knuckles and not his fingers. That’s the way to move the pizza to either the peel or the back of the plate or whatever you going to use to get the pizza into the oven. Scott Wiener: Cool and for saucing, we really just literally taking those tomatoes that we open up before and we’re going to like kind of use it right between lots of cheese. Allie Schwartz: I’ve got a sauce in. Scott Wiener: For final step, we’re just going to put a little bit ofI got Parmigiano-Reggiano over here. You could use Pecorino Romano, you can use Grana Padano. Allie Schwartz: If you include the cost of the tiles that you buy for the oven which is about $7.00, the recipe costs in total about $24.00 and that will make like four to five pizzas? Scott Wiener: At least four pizzas. Allie Schwartz: At least four to five pizzas. Scott Wiener: We’re going to use my infrared thermometer. This will tell us the surface temperature of the tiles. It’s very cool. Allie Schwartz: Okay, 578 nice. Scott Wiener: Good, so it’s right about six I mean I got 589. It's the last number that I got. Allie Schwartz: Okay so the idea with this is definitely to do as quickly as possible. I’m going to start the timer going because we want to check on t. Scott Wiener: Oh we have a window here. Allie Schwartz: Shipanade? Scott Weiner: Yeah, can you do shipanade with the sauce? Allie Schwartz: I can. Scott Wiener: Alright, I’m going to go for it. I've never been so nervous. Allie Schwartz: Oh my God, that looks perfect. Scott Wiener: And also on the bottom of the pizza, we’re probably going to have some hot but oh yeah it’s nice and some bubbling going on there. A little bit of charing, so we’re just going to take a little bit of olive oil and just this is really going to help all the flavors that come together, not too much. By holding it like, you're putting all the pressure down at the bottom and then you can run straight across to see all these air bubbles that you know fermentation has happened and it’s been in a good way. Oh boy it’s good. Allie Schwartz: That was amazing. This is amazing, to learn more you should check Scott’s Pizza Tour anytime you’re in New York City, the number one tour on yelp.com. This guy right here, pretty impressive. So thank you for Scott for coming by. Scott Wiener: Thank you for letting me eat pizza with you. Allie Schwartz: Yes, anytime, cook on Sunday, eat until Thursday. I’m Allie and this Scott, see you next time.